


Sweet Home

by gardnerhill



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Barbecue, Community: watsons_woes, Cooking, Gen, Retirement, Sherlock Holmes's Retirement, Sussex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 14:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11443194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: Holmes brought a little bit of soul back from his time undercover.





	Sweet Home

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2017 July Watson's Woes Promptfest prompt #8, **Everyone Loves Sharing Their Expertise.** All of us have something we've learned about or practiced a great deal. Whether it's knitting, or horseback-riding, or a particular performing group, use one of your own hobbies or interests as the inspiration for today's work. And don't forget to tell us what it is in the notes!

“Pork? In this heat?” Watson was skeptical. Summer in Sussex lay warm on the land. It really didn’t seem like the kind of weather for a ham or shoulder roast.

Holmes smiled. “Trust me, dear fellow. You won’t regret this.”

Watson shrugged and let his friend putter in the kitchen all morning, while he sat outside sketching the flowers or scribbling a bit of prose. He was happy to be here for a long visit, after being parted from his friend for 2 years and then the horror of the war (even being stationed at a London hospital for the duration was hellish). It was good to be back, even if it would take a few more weeks to tie up everything in London so he could move back here once again…

The smell coming from the kitchen was incredible. Watson turned his head, straightened up, sniffed. Tangy, sharp, sweet, smoky, salty – with the richness of pork underlying all of it. My god, what kind of sauce had Holmes been able to conjure for a ham roast?

Not a ham at all, it turned out, but a neat row of separated pig’s ribs slathered in a brown-red sticky sauce. Pork spareribs, the food usually given to the poor or boiled for soup stock, but here cooked long into mouth-watering tenderness and covered in that incredible-smelling sauce. The vegetable being served looked like spinach but carried both the richness of pork broth and the sharp tang of leafy herbs.

“My time in America was well-spent, dear chap. While undercover I took some lessons from a cook in Chicago who had come from Alabama.” And to Watson's shock his fastidious friend picked up the first sticky bone in his fingers and set his teeth to it.

When in Rome…Watson shrugged, picked up a rib, and uttered a cry of discovery as his mouth was flooded with fire and smoke and vinegar and sweet rich pork. Not enough to scrape the meat off that bone, he greedily sucked the sauce off it too.

Over the ecstasy playing out in his mouth, Watson vaguely heard Holmes add “And do be sure to try the mustard and collard greens, too.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **Author's Further Note:** I love to cook - and for a white woman I make a pretty good pot of collard greens and a zingy kettle of chili!


End file.
